First Partial Extract Brewday - Badger Golden Glory

[homebrewdave]

Hey folks, well yesterday was fun as I did my very first extract brew which I am going to refer to as EB01. I'd bought a cheap 15ltr stainless steel stock pot from the bay-of-e about a month ago along with a couple of EB kits from BrewUK. Id also bought the new book Home Brew Beer by Greg Hughes (Mr BrewUK) and what a cracking read it is giving me loads of confidence prior to yesterday. Listed below is the contents of the kit:

Badger Golden Glory

Target OG: 1.048
Estimated ABV: 4.6%
Volume: 20ltrs
165g Crushed Crystal Malt
2x1kg Light Malt Extract
1x500g Light Malt Extract
67g Fuggles Hops
33g Challenger Hops
15g Dried Elderflowers
1xmuslin bag
Yeast: Fermentis S04

As you will see from the pics below I started just after 12 and think I completed around 2.30 after cleaning up the kitchen. Ok, so here goes with a few pics as we all like images with a brewday report:

Time to unpack the ingredients but unfortunately I was missing the muslin bag which comes with the kit

I cleaned and sanitised the new s/s pot just in case and filled it with 6ltrs of water comprising 4 hot from the kettle and 2 from the cold tap

Put the 165g Crushed Crystal Malt Grains into my polybag that I use for hop teas which worked a treat. This is just after placing in the hot water

Steeped grains after 30 mins

Brought the infusion to a boil and then added the first 1kg of DME which had been premixed with cold water, back to the boil and the start of the 60mins boil

First of the hop addition of 67g of Fuggles

Second hop addition of 19g of Challenger and 15g of Elderflowers (smelt amazing). Third hop addition of 14g of Challenger and what I think was the hot-break

I'm afraid that's it for the pics as I was too busy cooling the wort and transferring it to the FV. I didn't go by the instructions to the letter at this point as they say to add the remaining 1.5kg of DME to the hot wort prior to cooling. I decided I wanted to do the mixing of the 1.5kg of DME in the FV which worked well albeit with the usual clumping issues which eventually got mixed in. I think there were positives and negatives to this. I thought that if I added it all to the hot wort it would have become a thicker consistency, not mix well (clumping) with all the hops and cause issues when straining the wort into the FV as I wanted maximum wort extraction without leaving too much behind in the leftover hops.

After mixing the DME in the FV I syphoned the cooled wort into the FV. My syphon tube got blocked due to the hops but after persevering and the use of a sanitised colander and sieve it was all transfered to the FV with minimal hop particle transfer. I then aerated the wort, took an OG reading which was 1048 (spot on), checked the temperature which was 21 and added the yeast mixing well and giving another aerating to the wort for extra measure. I fitted the lid, set the heater to 19 and moved it under the stairs.

In summary, I'm so glad I've gone to extract brewing as its that much more involving and I love the steeping of the grains. Equipment wise I'm happy with what I have but I do need to get a balloon whisk which will help no end. Well, that's about it from me. If you have any comments (good or bad) or tips they will be greatly received. :

 

[pittsy]

Well Dave it sounds like you had a good brew day , much more fun being involved isn't it . Now you have had a go you'll soon be able to make your own recipes (if wanted ) after seeing the ingredient aren't so scary . You should be pleasantly pleased with results too . Keep us posted on how it turns out :thumb:

 

[homebrewdave]

Cheers pittsy : I can tell already that this style of brewing is going to be addictive trying out all the different grains etc. After writing the report and mulling over the day I will definitely be doing a few things differently even if I do the Golden Glory kit again. I think once the grains had steeped the recipe would have benefited from a bit of spargeing of the grains just to get every last bit of their sugars out of them. I also think that the last hop addition would have been better going into the FV for a bit of dry-hopping.

As for what's sitting in the FV, the airlock has been glugging away for the past 2 days and sitting around the 19C temps. Can't wait to get this into bottles :drink: I have a keg but I'm not sure I want to put this one in the keg, what do you guys think?

 

[pittsy]

Beer is often better in the bottle compared to the keg , well maybe not better but different so the choice is yours . I would keg most and bottle a few . Btw if dry hopping wait until after around 3 to 4 days so foamy head dies down a bit first .